


Meeting Vampires

by MakingPoetry



Series: Albtraum 2.0 [14]
Category: The Covenant (2006)
Genre: Gen, M/M, Vampires
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-21
Updated: 2020-11-21
Packaged: 2021-03-10 07:13:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,919
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27659329
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MakingPoetry/pseuds/MakingPoetry
Summary: Chase tells Tyler about his vampire run in, then invites him to meet said vampire.
Relationships: Chase Collins/Tyler Simms
Series: Albtraum 2.0 [14]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1813285
Comments: 2
Kudos: 4





	Meeting Vampires

"You're shitting me, right?" Tyler said in disbelief.

"Why would I lie about this?"

"I don't know, but it _sounds_ like bullshit."

"It's not bullshit."

"You met a _vampire_?"

From the other side of the room, Reid looked at him now, raising an eyebrow in bewilderment. In response, Tyler shrugged.

"Do you want to meet him?" Chase said.

"Not really." Tyler balanced his phone on his shoulder for a moment, shifting his book over on his desk. "Why are you telling me this anyway? Is he dangerous?" 

"No, he's not dangerous. He's even more of an idiot than you are-"

" _Hey_ ," Tyler interjected, but Chase just kept talking.

"-but he did bring up a good point. Eternal youth would solve all of my problems."

" _Chase_." Tyler nearly dropped his phone, sitting up a little straighter. "Don't tell me you're tempted by that. You have no idea how dangerous it is or how it could effect your powers." He was aware of Reid staring at him, but turned away in his chair, trying to at least _pretend_ he was having a private conversation.

"Why not?" Chase retorted. " _You_ might not be in immediate danger of dying young, but I'd rather not be old before I'm twenty-five."

"But the risks-" Tyler started.

"You know, sometimes you sound just like Caleb," Chase said bitterly. "Do you have any idea what it's like to live this way?"

Tyler was quiet for a minute, biting his lip. "I care about you," he said quietly, "I don't want you to do anything you'll regret."

"I'm not going to rush into anything," Chase said, "I'm just telling you I'm considering it."

"What, considering rushing into it?"

"Don't be an ass. It doesn't suit you."

"Being an ass is your job, anyway," Tyler said. Taking a deep breath, he held it for a moment before exhaling. "How do you know you can trust this vampire?"

"I don't. Yet. But like I said, I'm not going to rush into anything."

"Okay." That was something. Tyler could handle that. Maybe. Everything felt like it was happening so fast lately. Werewolves, hunters, now vampires. He knew Caleb was doing the research on things, but sometimes Tyler considered doing the same so he wouldn't feel so out of the loop.

"I also let him bite me."

"You _what_?" Tyler exclaimed. "You could have died."

Reid looked over again. "What happened?"

Tyler just shook his head. He'd explain everything after he was off the phone.

"I would've kicked his ass."

"Uh-huh."

"Do you want to meet him?"

"Are you serious?"

"Do you want to meet a vampire or not?" Chase said impatiently.

"Caleb wouldn't be happy," Tyler pointed out.

"Fuck Caleb."

Tyler bit his tongue to resist saying he already had. "When and where should we meet?"

"Tonight at Nickey's. Around eight."

"Okay. I'll be there," Tyler promised.

"I'll see you then."

After Tyler had hung up, he turned to look at Reid, shaking his head slowly.

"So what's Caleb not going to be happy about?" Reid asked.

"I'm going to meet a vampire tonight," Tyler told him.

Reid stared at him for a minute. "No shit?"

Tyler nodded. "Yeah. If it's not one thing lately, it's another, huh?"

"Are you going to tell Caleb?"

"Not before I go." He didn't know exactly how Caleb was going to react to him meeting an apparently friendly vampire, but he didn't want Caleb looming over his shoulder, either. He knew Caleb cared about them, but he could be a little bit of a helicopter mom sometimes.

Reid nodded. "And you'll be careful?"

"Yeah, we're going to be at Nickey's. There'll be plenty of other people around. I'll call you if anything happens." He didn't think anything would though, not with Chase there. The others might not, but Tyler at least trusted Chase to keep him safe.

\-----

Tyler arrived at Nickey's a few minutes early, mostly because of nerves, and picked his way around the people inside. It didn't take him long to spot Chase, sitting with an unfamiliar teenager. If Tyler didn't know better, he'd say it looked like they were flirting. _And_ if he didn't know better, he'd say he felt a pang of jealousy. Brushing the feeling aside, he made his way over, smiling when he caught Chase's eye.

The conversation at the table fell into a comfortable quiet as Tyler approached, his hand brushing Chase's shoulder before he pulled out a chair to sit down. Remembering what Chase had told him, Tyler glanced at his neck, the obvious place to look for a bite. There it was, too. It wasn't an open wound, but it looked tender and maybe a little bruised.

"Hey," Chase greeted him amiably, smiling. "Tyler, this is Alexis."

Alexis smiled brightly, leaning forward to extend his hand. "Hey," he said. "So you're the boyfriend."

Tyler felt a flush of some indescribable emotion as he glanced at Chase before shaking hands with Alexis. "Yeah, that's me," he said. Alexis's hand was a little cool to the touch, but not close to what Tyler had been expecting.

"Are you also..." Alexis gestured at him vaguely, looking from him to Chase and back again.

"On the swim team?" Chase cut in. "Yeah."

"But you're not-" Tyler started.

Chase nudged his foot under the table, and Tyler went silent. There was something he was missing here.

Apparently he wasn't the only one, because Alexis looked confused, too. "Okay?"

"So, what brings you to Ipswich?" Tyler asked.

Alexis shrugged, leaning back in his chair. "It's a nice change of scenery," he said. It was the same answer he'd given Chase.

Tyler nodded. "From?"

"California," Alexis replied, shrugging again. "It's all boring, I promise. Not California, but me. I mean, some parts of Cali are boring, too, but."

"And how long have you been..." Tyler struggled to come up with a way to word it that wasn't just throwing it out there. In hindsight, while Nickey's was a safe place to be with all of the people, it was a terrible place to have this kind of conversation. It was honestly probably so loud no one would even notice what they were talking about, but Tyler didn't want to take too many chances. "-the way you are?"

Alexis laughed a little. "A few months."

"Any regrets?" Tyler hadn't _intended_ to turn this meeting into a 'grill the vampire' moment, but if Chase was even slightly considering becoming one, Tyler wanted to have all of the facts and some opinions.

Hesitating, Alexis looked down at the table top. "I've got a lot of regrets," he said. "But about _this_? Not really."

"What about outliving everyone you know?"

"Who says I haven't already?" Alexis retorted. "Really, you just make friends of the same kind, you know. Then you just have to worry about some uppity hunter who thinks they're doing the world a favor."

"Does that happen often?" Tyler didn't want Chase to become a target by doing this. They already had enough going on in their lives without worrying _more_ about hunters.

Alexis shrugged. "It happens sometimes, I guess. I've only heard stories."

"Don't you have an advantage over hunters, anyway?" Chase said.

"Everything's not brute strength," Alexis said. "We have an advantage, but they've learned to compensate for it."

"Makes sense," Tyler said. "Do you know anything about how things work technically?" he added.

"As in...the hows and whys behind eternal youth and the powers?" Alexis said, before shaking his head. "No."

"So you have no idea how it would affect-" he glanced at Chase. Someone who already _had_ powers.

"He already knows," Chase said. "We're both on the swim team, remember?"

Suddenly, Tyler got it. " _Chase_ ," he groaned. Twice now, Chase had shared their secret. He knew with Liam it had been to defend them both, but what was his excuse this time?

"To be fair, he mostly figured it out on his own," Chase said with a shrug.

"Oh! _That's_ what you meant," Alexis said abruptly. "Okay, we're all on the same page, then."

"What's the point of having a secret?" Tyler grumbled.

" _Sarah_ knows," Chase said.

"That was different, also not my decision, also kind of your fault," Tyler shot back.

Chase shrugged.

"It's not like I'm going to tell anyone," Alexis said. "We all have secrets; it's fine."

Tyler took a deep breath. "So you don't know how changing would affect someone like us?"

"Your guess is as good as mine," Alexis replied.

"There's only one way to find out," Chase said.

In response, Tyler kicked him under the table.

" _Ow_ ," Chase said, rubbing his shin.

"This is ridiculous," Tyler said.

"Why?"

"Because it could be dangerous. Because something could go wrong," Tyler said, a little exasperated. He was starting to understand how Caleb felt trying to wrangle all of them sometimes. "It's a risk, and we don't even know if we can trust you."

"Me?" Alexis said. "I haven't done anything untrustworthy!"

"Except attack me," Chase said.

"That was _one_ time. I said sorry." Alexis paused for a moment. "I did say I was sorry, didn't I?"

Chase shook his head.

"Well, I'm _sorry_ ," Alexis said.

"The point is, we don't know you, that's all," Tyler cut in.

"Fair enough." Alexis shrugged. "That didn't stop _him_ though." He nodded at Chase.

Tyler sighed. "Yeah, I know." Not a lot stopped Chase, honestly.

"Also, at the end of the day it doesn't really bother me if you trust me or not," Alexis added, "I just made an offer for something nice, but I'm not going to force anyone."

" _Is_ it something nice?" Tyler asked.

Alexis shrugged. "I don't think there'd be so many of us if people didn't think it was nice."

He had a point, but Tyler remained skeptical. This wasn't like messing around and Using a lot; this was something permanent. It wasn't even up to him in the end; it wasn't his life. But he didn't want Chase to be taken advantage of or do something stupid. The first part was kind of kind of ironic considering what Chase had done to all of them, but things were...different now.

"Assuming they're all turned willingly," Tyler said.

"I'd never turn someone against their will," Alexis assured him.

Tyler shrugged. All he had was Alexis's word on that. "Have you turned _anyone_?"

Alexis hesitated. "No, but I _do_ know how it works, and I've never, um-" he looked around for a moment, making sure no one was listening in on their conversation, "-I've never killed anyone."

There was no reason for Tyler to believe him, but there was no reason for him _not_ to, either. So far, he couldn't honestly imagine Alexis killing anyone. Then again, he hadn't been able to imagine Chase killing anyone at first, either.

"What would you get out of turning someone?" Tyler was looking for those hidden strings, a _reason_ someone would do something.

"Nothing?" Alexis tilted his head. "Look, I'm nineteen. Like, _really_ nineteen. Being young is fun. If someone _else_ wants to be young forever, who am I to stop them?"

"But there's gotta be downsides, right? It can't all be perfect," Tyler protested.

"No. I mean, yeah there are downsides. Some things could be better." Alexis shrugged. "There's..." he trailed off, gaze focused on a point above and behind Tyler.

The hair on the back of Tyler's neck stood up. He was expecting the worst as he started to turn-

"Tyler, we need to talk." It was Caleb.


End file.
